If you believe the polls, New York's Democratic attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, the son of three-term Gov. Mario Cuomo, is a shoo-in as the state's next governor.
Cuomo benefits from a past seemingly taint-free compared to those of New York's previous two governors, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson, as well as his popular agenda as the state's attorney general and a lackluster Republican challenger in Rick Lazio, a former U.S. congressman. But even from the salad days of his campaign, Cuomo has been alienating organized labor, a major part of the state Democratic Party's base. In June he broke with tradition among progressives by not seeking the endorsement of the union-backed Working Families Party (WFP). And his tough approach to public-employee pensions was cribbed from right-wing talking points. Using his platform as attorney general, he criticized pension-padding -- a legal method whereby workers pile on overtime in their final years of employment to increase their annual retirement payments -- saying it is "chronic and is very, very expensive."
In short, Cuomo is exploiting the current weakness of unions, particularly those in the public sector, to gain broad political support beyond their dues-paying membership. He's not the only Democrat in the country running to be a top state executive to do so. "There is certainly a sense by a lot of politicians, including Democrats, that labor is unpopular," says Josh Freeman, a labor historian at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. "And they can make points with voters by attacking them, and that would potentially fracture a liberal coalition." As Prospect Executive Editor Mark Schmitt wrote last year, a Democratic Party that loses labor's influence -- and replaces it with an urban-dwelling, highly educated cohort of voters -- risks becoming one that fails to address the real concerns of millions of workers for whom the American dream is increasingly out of reach.
While unions and progressive voters aren't always aligned, they do need each other politically, Freeman says. Democrats depend on labor for fundraising and voter turnout, and progressives depend on that union push for a big Democratic coalition that will more likely advance issues such as gay marriage, drug-policy reform, and more tenant-friendly rent laws. Cuomo's choice to alienate labor, even when he has no serious opposition, hurts the party overall and therefore weakens the potential of progressives to shift enough of the party's elected members leftward. And it could hurt other Democrats' chances. While Cuomo can glide into office, the party only narrowly controls the state Senate, and a key group of its members already vote like Republicans.
In tight races, it is usually labor's money and voter turnout that can tilt things in the Democrats' favor. Without a big push from unions, Democrats could fall behind in those contested districts. If rebuffed in this election year, labor may even support a few Republican candidates who promise to pass legislation specifically benefiting union members. So Cuomo's offensive -- if history is any indication -- could rob the Democrats of their current control over Albany, putting any hope of other state-level progressive reform on hold for at least another election cycle. "Places like the suburbs are still very much in play," Cuomo says, challenging the notion that state politics is dominated by New York City liberals.
In fact, Cuomo's own record on other progressive stances remains very much in question, especially because he hasn't had an opponent to his left to keep him in check. The New York Times wrote recently that there is a "fraught relationship between Mr. Cuomo and gays and lesbians dating to the 1970s, when he entered New York politics." Cynical observers fear that Cuomo is more interested in carrying on the family legacy than in leading a new political agenda for the state, progressive or otherwise. "He's taking positions that put him to the center," says Seymour Lachman, a former state senator and author of several books on state government.
Some still believe that labor will actively back Cuomo rather than sit on its hands or support Lazio, but union leaders are more likely to do that if Cuomo actually offers some kind of policy proposal that they like, rather than just simply reminding them that he's not a Republican. "If we make our case as I think we can, he's going to recognize that the unions are not the problem," says Bill Henning, vice president of Communication Workers of America Local 1180. "I'm hopeful that he will see the light and see that his best days are with working people, not against them."
